20997 REL 1

PI 2003-017-00 ECO LOGIC REL. 1: JOHN DAY PLANNING

2/1/2005

3/31/2006

174. Produce Plan

Work Element Usage Report

B: 174 - Develop an RM&E plan for the John Day River Basin

The first step of the basinwide RME plan requires a limiting factors analysis for all watersheds. The AFG can coordinate with other efforts that have been working towards this goal such as subbasin planning, which has used the Ecosystem Diagnostic and Treatment model (EDT) throughout the John Day to identify limiting factors. Other processes will also feed into this larger effort such as the Technical Recovery Team, and various watershed and recovery plans throughout the basin. The current research coordinated under the AFG will also be useful in this process, especially projects describing how landscape patterns and land use practices relate to habitat and fish distribution at the reach and watershed scale, because these studies occur throughout the John Day basin. Also, status and trend monitoring programs throughout the John Day will provide baseline information that will be used as a reference to evaluate restoration effectiveness.

Next, a prioritization of restoration efforts by watershed will be necessary. Priority will be determined by potential importance for aiding in the recovery of focal species, potential for improvement (e.g. comparison between historic and current condition), practicality of implementation (e.g. private landowners, expense, etc.), and the likelihood to detect change given what has been learned from the ability of monitoring programs to distinguish signals from noise. Multiple restoration projects throughout the John Day basin will likely be done with the cooperation of several interested parties. There may also be opportunities to evaluate existing restoration activities retrospectively. Information on restoration efforts to date throughout the John Day have already been complied and archived in the John Day geodatabase administered by the BOR.

Finally, lessons learned from past research and monitoring, and the IMW study will be useful in designing effectiveness monitoring and research programs over the basin. Also, design of effectiveness monitoring may also consider evaluation of restoration projects in an experimental management framework where watersheds/reaches with a restoration action, or a suite of restoration actions are compared against control watersheds/reaches. The larger scale of the John Day may provide opportunities for greater spatial comparisons, higher replicates of treatments and controls, and greater universe of restoration types for extrapolation to other basins.

Development of a John Day subbasin RM&E plan.

$52,000

56.75%

02/01/2005

03/31/2006

03/31/2006

Concluded

[Unassigned]

[Unassigned]

Finite